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Women’s rights activists often cite the repetition of military dictatorships in Pakistan as being responsible for arrested democratic development, worsening gender discrimination and increased theocratisation of state and society. This chapter argues that in fact, whether the nature of dictatorship was repressive and misogynistic (as under General Zia ul Haq, 1977-88) or purportedly liberal and ‘enlightened’ (General Musharraf, 1999-2008), women’s activism has been arguably the most energised and even incomparably influential, during such regimes. This is especially so in terms of mobilised political expression. In comparison, democratic interregnums have tended to mute women political actors, both in government and in civil society or sometimes through self-censorship. …

Report in Bangla on the research which documented and analysed strategies and approaches used by three national women's organisations in Bangladesh to mobilize and advocate for women's rights and raise demands to the state and other rights holders. The study challenges the established view that feminist voice, organisation and movement loses ground after democratic transitions. …

This report in Bangla focuses on research which compared and contrasted conceptualizations of women's empowerment used by different actors: women's organisations, development agencies, political parties and NGOs in Bangladesh. …

Sohela Nazneen, Maheen Sultan and Naomi Hossain explore concepts of empowerment being used by some women’s organisations, development NGOs, mass political parties and aid donors in Bangladesh. Focusing primarily on public discourses, they review publicly available documentation of women’s organisations, development NGOs, mass political parties and aid donors. They discuss the implications of using empowerment by these different actors and conclude with reflections on new forms of public action and coalitions of interest to advance women’s power in Bangladesh. …

This paper explores how perceptions and narratives around women’s empowerment have evolved in Bangladesh from 2000 to date. It studies the concepts of women’s empowerment in public discourse and reviews the meanings and uses of the term by selected women’s organisations, donor agencies, political parties and development NGOs. By reviewing the publicly available documents of these organisations, the paper analyses the multiple discourses on women’s empowerment, showing the different concepts associated with it and how notions such as power, domains and processes of empowerment are understood by these actors. It also highlights how these different discourses have influenced each other and where they have diverged, with an emphasis on what these divergences mean in terms of advancing women’s interests in Bangladesh. …

This article is based on the experiences and reflections of a group of researchers in Bangladesh (of which we were members) studying women's empowerment. We investigate the kinds of epistemological and ethical dilemmas that arose from how they selectively presented their identities to gain access and tried to create ‘positional spaces’ in conducting fieldwork. We also explore how these researchers engaged in co-production of knowledge with research participants and tried to balance our multiple accountabilities in this process. By exploring these issues, we analyse assumptions about ‘feminist’ research practices and our struggles to live up to these. …

At the Millennium Summit world leaders committed to reducing extreme poverty through a series of targets encompassed within the MDGs, with a deadline of 2015. One of these was to promote gender equality and empower women, and the ‘proportion of seats held by women in national parliament’ was set as a key indicator. With the MDG Review Summit meeting in September 2010, this is an opportunity to consider whether the proportion of women in parliament continues to be the most adequate proxy for women’s political empowerment. This IDS Bulletin explores what the quota has meant as a motorway to women’s accession to political power by drawing on research findings from the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programme Consortium (‘Pathways’), as well as a series of articles from a special seminar in the Brazilian National Congress as part of this programme, and contributions from other country case studies. …

By focusing on three different national level women's organisations in Bangladesh, this article looks at how the movements have used different strategies to become an effective voice for women's interests and empowerment at civil society and state levels. The importance of framing their issues in a non-contentious way, building alliances with like-minded groups and the strength of personal networks can be clearly seen. Reaching out to these diverse groups has meant the organisations at times making strategic choices, which allowed the groups to create space and legitimacy for their agenda. Relying on personal networks is shown to carry certain risks for sustainability and their ineffective engagement with political parties can reduce their influence, but ultimately their strategies for mobilising support and building constituencies has gained these organisations greater legitimacy and strength as advocates of women's issues. …

This paper presented to 'Pathways: What are we Learning?' Conference held in Cairo from 20-24 January 2009, explores how three national level women’s organisations mobilize various constituencies including their own members and negotiate with political parties, the state bureaucracy and allies within civil society, for attaining specific gender justice related goals. The focus is on two different processes: a) how these organisations ‘create meaning’ around an issue (i. e. , justify and represent) for constituents, members and allies; b) how they create support for their cause among potential supporters and allies. …

By focusing on three different national level women's organisations in Bangladesh, this chapter looks at how the movements have used different strategies to become an effective voice for women's interests and empowerment at civil society and state levels. The importance of framing their issues in a non-contentious way, building alliances with like-minded groups and the strength of personal networks can be clearly seen. …

The purpose of this workshop was to provide time and space to reflect. Participants reflected on their work on empowerment and why they do it, and how it has shaped them. Participants reflected on their personal journeys and also on their relationships with power; when do they feel powerful and why, when do they feel powerless, and how do they react to power. This report follows the different sessions and highlights the themes and questions that emerged from the participants’ stories and reflections. …

The articles in this collection are based on papers presented by authors and the collective reflections of participants and external resource persons from a workshop on methods organised by Pathways in December 2012. These articles represent the experience of conducting specific research projects on women's empowerment in Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Brazil, and Palestine. During the workshop, the participants collectively reflected on the practical experience of investigating empowerment in a particular country context and through this lens re-examined theorising on feminist methodology. They began with an appreciation of the contradictions and complexities underscored by earlier feminist analysis of women's empowerment and the use of feminist methodology to examine women's experience in the global South. …

This research report describes and analyses how three national level women’s organisations in Bangladesh mobilized support around a particular issue among their membership and allies. The research uses resource mobilisation theories and feminist studies on the state and social movement for grounding this research. The focus is on the decade of 1990s and the present decade. Through these case studies the research aims to capture the diversity of the strategies used by these organisations for building constituencies internally and externally, i. …

The objective of this paper presented to the 'Pathways: What are we Learning?' Conference held in Cairo from 20-24 January 2009, is to analyse the discourses on women’s empowerment among the three main political parties in Bangladesh: the Awami League (AL); Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), and Jamaat-E-Islami. The analysis of these documents focuses on the following areas: a) what issues and ideas have the political parties incorporated from the feminist and development discourses on women’s empowerment; b) where do the dissonances lie in this incorporation process; and c) where do the centrist and religion based parties vary on their discourse on women’s empowerment. The paper argues that of these parties have drawn from the national and international development discourse on women’s empowerment and on certain issues ideas propagated by the Bangladeshi feminists. However, compared to the two centrist parties AL and BNP, the Islamist party, Jamaat adopted a more comprehensive view of women’s empowerment. …

The paper analyses the discourses on women’s empowerment among the three main political parties in Bangladesh: the Awami League (AL), Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat ‐e‐ Islami. It argues that the Islamist party, Jamaat, has taken a more comprehensive view of women’s empowerment compared to the centrist parties, AL and BNP, who have an instrumentalist approach to women’s empowerment. This divergence is partly a result of the need for Jamaat to ideologically convince supporters that they have been able to deal with the challenge raised by women’s movement successfully. The centrist parties are able to disregard this pressure, and are perhaps reluctant to antagonize potential voters by appearing too ‘un‐Islamic. …